Spring Break Part 3

Elizabeth in the pool.

Hanna looks so grown up here. She will be 10 in just a few weeks.

Dan will not appreciate me posting this picture but I thought it was so cute! Sam is trying so hard to hold on in the back.

Elizabeth flying in the air.

Spring Break Part 2

The kids wanted to go swimming at the pool the whole vacation. Dan took the girls to the pool on Saturday. They had a great time swimming and doing tricks. Hanna is doing a flip mid air in the picture above.

Emily says that it is so much easier to pick up Sam in the water.

Here is Elizabeth and Samantha with another new baby cousin (my brother's baby, Ellie). They had a great time holding all the new additions.

The girls faces and hand outlined at the museum.

Emily making a cloud at the museum.

Spring Break Part 1

We were able to go to Southern California for Spring break. We left last Tuesday night. Dan and I both grew up in Southern California so it is always fun to go back and visit. Each day was filled with fun and excitement. I will be posting different parts of our vacation because I can only upload 5 pictures at a time.

We went to the Discovery Science Museum for our niece's birthday party. Here is Hanna climbing a rock wall. There were so many kids there but all the kids had a great time. We saw an amazing bubble show.

Dan's sister lives in Ladera Ranch so we spent a night at their house. She has three daughters. Her oldest is Em and Liz's age and her second just turned 6 years old. It if fun for all of them to get together to play. Sam and Jesse were having a push up contest.

Dan enjoyed holding his sister's new baby. It was fun being reminded of when our girls were little. How fast everyone goes.

We have a DVD system in our car. It has made traveling long distance a little easier. We try and not turn it on for at least the first hour of the trip. When I was little, we always had to come up with things to do on long trips. I think it is good for kids to enjoy travel without TV. I must admit it is nice when you start to hear "Are we there yet?" for the 100th time.

We saw a beautiful rainbow on our way down south. The weather was crazy on our drive down. The wind was so bad on the 5 freeway in the Central valley that we thought our car just might blow over. There were dust storms everywhere. You would be driving and all of the sudden you couldn't see because of the dust storm. We were able to divert a serious accident (3 big rigs and 12 cars) just before they closed the freeway. It pays to follow big rigs when trying to divert serious traffic. They knew just the right way to go to bypass the stopped traffic. After all the dust storms and a little rain, this is what we saw.

Pulling Weeds and 50's Day

Hanna's 4th grade class hosted 50's day at school a couple of weeks ago. At least the poodle skirt I made a few years ago got used again. Notice the waffle in Sam's hand as we were rushing out the door to get to school. Emily chose not to dress up. She actually came home sick from school that day.

Since we've moved into our house, we have neglected the backyard. The previous owners had cut down trees but left the stumps. Dan has been so busy at work, he has not had time to get to the backyard. My friend inspired me to start pulling the weeds that started to grow (actually that had overtaken our backyard). Here is Elizabeth somewhere in the weeds. The kids all earned money to help me pull weeds. I was so sore for the few days after pulling all the weeds.

Emily is about ready to say that she has had enough.

Here is Hanna for 50's day.

Science Fair

Hanna, Emily and Elizabeth all just recently participated in the school science fair. They each worked on their project with 2 other kids from their class. We were able to go see their projects Tuesday night after the judging. All the girls won 1st place. We are proud of their great effort and glad they got to learn more about the scientific process. (Samantha's teacher chose not to do a project with her class.)

Family Home Evening....The Laundry Mat

A week and a half ago I went to switch our laundry from the washer to the dryer. When I picked up the clothes they were sopping wet. I thought oh no.... my washer has finally had it. It actually was the day of my birthday (March 24th). Dan and I discussed if we should see if we could fix it or just buy a new one. Some friends said to try this appliance fix it company in town. We thought we would give it a shot. He came out the next day and was able to tell me right away what the problem was. He told me it would cost around $110 to fix. That sounded pretty good to me so I said fix it. His response "I need to get the part." Today our washer is still not fixed. We are STILL waiting on the part. Patience is a good virtue. Last week, we did a couple loads of laundry at my friends house. I didn't want to ask again so Monday night we went to the laundry mat for Family Home Evening. I have never seen the girls so excited to do laundry! I couldn't figure out why everyone was staring at us. Could it be that we used 10 washers all at once??? Or is it our 4 girls??? Or Dan wearing his work clothes??? People really started to stare when I got my camera out to take pictures.

Gotta love laundry! Is this really fun??

Sam helping put my workout clothes in the washer.

Hanna is thinking.."Ok, maybe it could be fun!"

How much more can I carry?

It was fun for the kids to put the money into the slots. Needless to say, we spent almost $25.00 that night on laundry but.........never could I have gotten 10 loads done in less than 2 hours. While the laundry was being washed, we sat on a bench and really held Family Home Evening. We sang, had a lesson and even treat. It was quite the fun night. We may be doing that again soon if the darn part doesn't come. This did bring us back to the days when Dan and I were first married and living in Provo. I was 9 months pregnant with Hanna and doing laundry at the laundry mat. We had a bad experience with the owner of that laundry mat so that next weekend we bought a used washer and dryer. I will forever appreciate my washer and dryer!

Radom Updates

Here is Hanna at her most recent 4-H meeting. She gave a presentation on her recent dance experience that I already blogged about. It gives them good public speaking experience.

Every morning it seems like a battle trying to get the girls out of bed for school. We are all happy Spring Break is coming! Anyway, one morning I went into Sam's room and found her like this. Either she feel asleep reading her book or she has found a new form of reading! All of our girls would stay up all night reading if we let them.

Here is Hanna again reading her paper. Doesn't she look cute in her apparel?

At church I teach CTR 5,6 and 7. Each week if they are good, we add a letter to a word they are trying to spell out. Once they complete the word they get whatever the word says. This time it was party. We had a party at my house. This picture is of them right before they were going out for the Easter egg hunt. Two of the kids in my class were unable to make it.

Samantha is quite the artist. She gets her ability from her father since I can't even draw stick people! In town, we have an art studio call Sol Treasures. Samantha has been taking an art class there every Wednesday. She has come home with some great masterpieces. Recently she took a friend with her to class and they make magnets. It was fun for Sam to have a friend because she is always the only girl. Her teacher says that she is so quiet and never makes a peep. She intently will listen and follow directions. I wonder sometimes if we are talking about the same child. She if far from quiet at home!